


reflected in the stars

by Yuuzel



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M, Nao can be read as any gender (no pronouns used), Other, Self-Indulgent, slightly eerie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25133704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuuzel/pseuds/Yuuzel
Summary: “Nao, why are you here?”“To look at the stars,” Nao said.A mysterious voice visits Natsuya at night. He doesn't look.
Relationships: Kirishima Natsuya/Serizawa Nao
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: SportsFest 2020





	reflected in the stars

**Author's Note:**

> my first time writing for free!   
> I just love NatsuNao.

When Nao visited, Natsuya did not look.

It was early in summer, the air had begun to stay warm even after the sun left the sky. During the day it had been too hot to actually do work, Natsuya had too much energy to already go to sleep.  
Instead, he dragged his grandmother's old rocking chair out of the cabin, sitting down with a lantern, a piece of wood, and a knife to carve and enjoy the warm breeze.

Only briefly did Natsuya look up at the sky. It was beautiful of course, but so was it every other night of the year in the forest.  
He just leaned back into the chair, closing his eyes forgetting about carving for a moment, and took deep breaths of the evening air.

“Don't the stars look incredible tonight?” a soft voice behind him spoke.  
It was a gentle sound, almost melodious.

Natsuya froze. He didn't dare open his eyes, scared of what he would find.  
The woods had always been infested with all kinds of dangerous creatures, like wolfs, or bears, or fairies.  
Pretty voices that came out of nowhere were never a good sign.

“Are you not going to greet me?” His unwanted visitor did not let being ignored deter him.

The rocking chair shook and Natsuya felt a small gust of wind ruffle his hair.  
Fairies did have pretty voices. His grandmother had once told him about a type of water spirits with voices so beautiful that they could drive someone insane.  
He thought that might be happening to him when Natsuya felt the tension in his neck disappear and his breaths become slower.

Such a calm voice.

Natsuya was awoken by the first rays of sunlight. He had fallen asleep in his rocking chair. When he realized that the door had been unlocked, he jumped up, a bit dizzy from the suddenness, and ran inside to check if everything was still in the right place.

The voice from yesterday was still stuck in his head, like a song he couldn't forget. A shudder went through him when Natsuya realized that he had fallen asleep in the presence of a fairy. Had it been a more aggressive intruder, he could have been in serious danger.

Despite his unusual encounter, Natsuya had to go through the motions of everyday life. The heat was still unbearable, but he couldn't spend the entire heat wave doing nothing. His plants needed to watering, traps had to be checked and herbs waited for him to collect them.  
The dry weather would make the herbs easy to dry, which was important as he needed to go to the market again soon. Memories of the gentle voice kept him company.

In the evening, he was plenty exhausted, but he still chose to sit down on the rocking chair. He only took the lantern with him.  
Slowly, Natsuya rocked back and forth, looking up at the night sky.  
There seemed to be no space that was not filled with stars, their shimmer filled all he could see.

“I could never get enough of this sky,” a voice said from behind him.

This time, Natsuya had been prepared. It would have been a lie to say that he hadn't hoped to hear the lovely voice again.  
He kept his eyes open, still staring up at the stars.

“Who are you?” Natsuya asked, trying to keep his voice firm. If he was going to converse with a fairy, he needed to at least sound confident.

The fairy giggled and the stars shone a little brighter. “Call me Nao, if you need to.”

“Nao, why are you here?”

“To look at the stars,” Nao said.

Why would a fairy, who could probably go anywhere at any time, choose exactly this place to stargaze?  
“But why here?”

Again, Nao giggled. It sounded less angelic and more mocking. “It's not like much of the sky is visible between all those trees.”

He was right. The forest was dense, only really thinning around Natsuya's cabin. “The sky looks the same every night, why do you keep watching it?”

Natsuya was answered with a scandalized gasp. “Because it looks beautiful every night!”

Natsuya wondered if Nao looked beautiful. It was likely, Natsuya couldn't imagine a voice like this coming out of someone not befitting it. And fairies were known for their beauty after all. Turning around was so tempting.

Wind brushed through Natsuya's hair, the chair rocked a bit faster and it felt as if someone was standing behind him. He felt that someone's breath on his ear.  
“Please don't turn around. Why waste time when you could be looking at the stars instead?”

Nao sounded like how the stars looked. Or did the stars look like how Nao sounded?  
Natsuya did not turn around. He just kept looking at the stars, and listening.  
Maybe he did not need to know how Nao looked.

When Nao visited, Natsuya did not look. It was almost as if Nao's voice appeared next to him or behind him whenever Natsuya looked at the stars.  
It was beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!  
> Thank you for reading.


End file.
